This I Believe

I have always believed that somehow I need to show my appreciation for living in this country. This country is not the place of my origin yet nourished the shallow roots I now cherish. In 1962, I walked into this country with little or no knowledge of where I was or where I was going. I was too young to know. I held my mother’s hand; we crossed the bridge over “El Rio Grande,” and I didn’t smile at the camera which produced a now infamous “green card.” Holding on to this identification and safeguarding its existence was the hardest thing we ever did. Growing up, I have often thought about the form of generosity and compassion waiting for me to arrive everywhere I went. It seemed a path chosen for me and at each stop a source of subsistence was institutionalized so I could rise from my poverty. It seemed the roads were paved for me to reach California. I remember the extended family network miraculously connected and hospitable, the fields full with labor for my father and Mother, a functional labor camp, and the schools funded to develop my education. I have thought about the law and its jurisprudence that protected me, the ambulance rushing me to the burn unit, a welfare office my father dreaded, food stamps and cheese. As soon as I finished my hot lunches I received a diploma and joined the military. Again, I was no less confident in the ability of American Democracy to sustain my ambitions, dreams and direction. I boarded my first flight, touched down in San Antonio, Texas, and boarded a bus to boot-camp. I arrived to meet a very irritated drill sergeant who quickly and loudly instilled his values, organization, fortitude, and preparedness. With new clothes, shelter, three meals per day, and a new family, I was again ready to venture out and find my place in American society. I had reached adulthood, found a source of income and a purpose in life. After volunteering, the old GI bill was my college student loan, furnishing my room and board as a bachelor so that I could study in the library, eat with the student body and fall in love. It is fascinating that I have yet to find a bill in my mail box for all that I owe. I expect that it is a size-able itemized total, a burden to this country too great to recover, a weary ideal America is known for…I believe that I can only offer an empty pocket of thankfulness, citizenship and a heavy gratitude that my children can rise as pillars of their future communities.

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Top 100 Essays USB Drive

This USB drive contains 100 of the top This I Believe audio broadcasts of the last ten years, plus some favorites from Edward R. Murrow's radio series of the 1950s. It's perfect for personal or classroom use! Click here to learn more.

This week’s essay

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.